Windows Phone 8 Media Chooser (photo and video) similar to Viber/WhatsApp

Question

I have been developing an app which, similar to its iOS and Android versions, selects a video from the media library/camera roll of the phone. In Android and iOS this is almost no problem since media choosing APIs for those platforms are available.

For my case, which is Windows Phone 8, I have been searching over the web and even reading the MSDN documentations, about Media chooser, which you can choose not just photo but also video in the camera roll, but luckily there isn't available as I have read. Only the PhotoChooserTask is available and only photos not videos can be chosen.

While trying to figure out if there is really a media chooser with both video support, I have tried looking over the WhatsApp and Viber apps for Windows Phone 8, and surprisingly, they have this "Choose Media" picker. Their 'media chooser' both look almost the same, and has the ability to pick video.

These are the screenshots from the Viber/WhatsApp's "Choose Media" chooser:

WhatsApp's "Choose Media"

Viber's "Choose Media"

My question is what type of control/chooser API is that? Or is it something like third party paid library ? Or an open source one? Have been frustated searching for days but still no luck finding one.

Answer 1

In Windows Phone 8, the API that allows to access the media library to fetch pre-recorded videos is unfortunately not available for third party developers. Microsoft gave the permission to use a hidden API to a few app editors only (WhatsApp, etc.).

However things change in Windows Phone 8.1 (Store apps) where you have an API that allows file selection and you can specifiy that you want video files.

Sample code:

var openPicker = new Windows.Storage.Pickers.FileOpenPicker();

openPicker.FileTypeFilter.Add(".wmv");
openPicker.FileTypeFilter.Add(".mp4");

var file = await openPicker.PickSingleFileAsync();